QuestionSince you're so damn well-read in various subjects and have direct in-field direct experience in your primary subject (self defense and crime) along with legit academic credentials and praise from top experts in the field, I have to ask you about a certain trend.

You criticize many experts-in particular Academicians- whent hey try to comment about crime, self-defense, and especially the nature of violence because all they do is book study and work in a desk all day long compiling data. In your NoNoneSenseSElfDefense website, you also mentioned that a lot of findings of Academics are as a result ineffective because they are incomplete and lacking essential car parts due to the nature of how Academics assess the field.

But you also STATED you routinely receive DEATH THREATS, verbal slurs, slander (some even being outright lies), threat of being sued, and even had to engage in a few physical scuffles because of your nonconformist unpopular articles that shatter the longstanding beliefs of many cults in the RBSD, martial arts, sports, legal, and political world when it comes to topics involving your topics of expertise.

For the most part your article doesn't even touch sensitive topics like ethnicity, race, religion, politics, and (INSERT). Yet already for something as silly as pointing out why many modern techniques are missing mechanics that originally made them deadly centuries ago and pointing out the legal repercussions of claiming self defense when it isn't, you have n entire group of people in several fields OUT to KILL YOU (even though your intent was never to offend them but to warn people the dangers they face when walking into these topics with superficial knowledge).

If you are facing death threats and even outright physical violence for nonsensitive topics, FUCKING who FUCKING GOD KNOWS what hell hole of SHIT you will face if you ever decide to change fields into something that frequently inspires physical violence (and even mass riots) such as race relations.

BUT I really HAVE to ask; you not only cite academic sources all the time, you also chat with academics when writing your articles and are even CLOSE friends to a few.

So I have to ask; HOW COME you ALMOST NEVER see experts in other non-physical fields that don't directly get involve with violence (IG visiting the crime scene or walking in the dark alleys) but are sensitive enough to inspire violence of all sorts including riots (such as history, politics, and nationalism)...........

HOW COME you never see them GET INTO being victims of blatant violence? Particularly getting punched in the face for citing a source they read?

I mean I too am a history major like you are (I graduate this upcoming semester). Years ago I merely stated that my history teacher said that the Soviets are the ones who truly won World War 2 and they fought the overwhelming brunt of the German forces. That United States role was minimal according to her and the Soviets wiped out over 80% of the German military in the war.

One guy (who was a redneck and a swaggering army wannabe guy) went up to me and told me "In America if you talk about communism, you'll get beaten up!" and he had a look towards me of such incredible anger. I told him I'm NOT communist and that I was merely stating what my history teacher told me. He still continued looking at me like he wanted to murder me and threatened to kick my ass. I told him I don't even believe what she says but my teacher did make me question long-held beliefs I had about WWII such as "America saves the day" and "Russians being an army of rag taled army so unequipped they couldn't give every soldiers rifles". But I will never forget the glare demonic look he had in his face and how he genuinely believed I was a diehard communist.

A week later when I was walking in the hallway I got punched from behind and it was the same guy who accused me of being communist. I was knocked on the ground and he continued hitting me. and yelled at me as "a communist who should be deported to Cuba!". A teacher had to intervene to stop him.

But I was so SHOCKED as hell because at this point the earlier accusation was far of my mine and I was so busy with life (in fact I was eager to go home because I had a date with a chick).I had literally forgot the incident and here I was suddenly being attacked as a communist.

I was so pissed as hell I got my Republican ID and smacked it against this redneck's face and chewed him out.

But enough of that incident. The thing that made me so fucking scratching my head was that that history teacher of mine NEVER get into trouble for stating that the Soviets fought most of the Nazis from her student. She never got assaulted in the whole time I took her class. TH eonly incident I could think of was her arguing with a PE coach who was angered when I told him she was teaching that Soviets fought much of the Europe war.

In fact you're the FIRST expert I ever met who not only was verbally abused, threatened, and even experience physical violence for stating statements.

All in the experts of various field (especially in the Academic world of universities and colleges) I never seen say an expert in economics receive death threats for stating that the United States has historically used a mixed economy rather than the lassaire-fez that Republicans love so much or the Keynesian approach democrats advocate. I seen history professors state things even far more contradicting the narratives than what my history teacher years prior stated; CHRIST I seen professors in collegest each students that American soldiers have committed warcrimes in South America and GANGRAPED women in various wars that happened in the regions.

But I never seen a redneck run up to these professors and beat them up like I experienced years prior.

Oh sure I know about how KKK members have threatened to kill professors who were teaching black students back in the 60s and even at least one assassination attempt on a Jewish professor who was openly vocal about how stupid and evil the neo Nazi skinhead movement rising during the 70s and 80s was. But these incidents are so fucking rare and practically nonexistent in today's academia and almost never happen against most experts today; you don't read about Catholic professors getting shot for stating the Bible is full of inconsistencies in South America for example.

HERE's the CATCH- I HAVE seen people outside of acadamia GET attacked verbal violence, receive death threats, and even OUTRIGHT get assaulted for stating their knowledge and opinions.

For example, during my freshman years one guy stated he opposes the war in Iraq and believes the US should leave during lunch time at the university. One of the student (a guy who was in the army national guard) got up from his table, went up to the anti-war guy, and PUNCHED him. He then went on a rant about how he was a traitor and how he doesn't appreciate soldier's lives and other BS and than left the cafeteria so pissed off.

Another incident (outside college and in a Denny's restaurant) one guy was complaining about how US is so unfair in its wealth gap and how rich people never had to work a day in his life. Two nearby guys who were diehard libertarians began mocking him and attacking him verbally, calling him a sheltered "American" rich kid who has no idea how its like to work for a living.

I will just leave it to these example. Thing is the National Guard guy who hit the antiwar guy; the college earlier I had mentioned TAUGHT some "anti-American" stuff like marines raping South American women during the Banana Wars. Yet this National GUARD guy NEVER ONCE spoke out against any of the history professors let alone hit them. In fact in the few classes I took with him, he was just taking notes (though his physical expressions indicating he was so pissed everytime a professor mentions American warcrimes like the massacre of American Indians and he did talk outside of class about how these professors are full of shit adn anti-American traitors who should be thrown into Iran or some other country).

I have never seen a libertarian openly enroll in my classes about American history, sociology, and other subjects that not only dispell libertarianism's effectiveness but outright shows how throughout history there always have been the abusive spoiled and lazy rich people who only earned their wealth through inheritance. I MEAN where are those libertarians in Dennys now during these lectures by my sociologist and political science teachers?

Its only on the internet where I freuquently seen comments bashing how moronic professors are and sending death threats when a professor comments about how the Zimmerman case was not an example of racism against blacks and favoritism towards white or some other controversy involving sensitive subjuect like religion.

And its only in the self defense world where I have seen an expert-you-actually get assaulted for commenting his experience.

In fact to put another example, I know of a theologian and religious expert who wrote a book stating the Bible has far far far more violent passages than the Koran;he stated Bible has 3X more violent passages than Islam's book!

Yet he never received ostracization from the news nor has he received angry verbal slurs from the Catholic Church. Yet people who aren't experts like Dan Brown and Salmon Rushdie got news outrage when they published their FICTIONAL BOOKS and even received physical threats.

Another example to put is how marine recruits love to call the army pussies who don't jknow shit about war. Yet everytime an army drill instructor passes by, I have ye tto see a recent marine recruit tell the DI straight up that he's a pussy for joining the army and not a real man for joining the marines!

(Although I should mention I have seen marines fight other equal ranks in the army in bars simply because the army guys pointed out genuine facts about the marines like how they lack the manpower to commit fight a prolonged operation).

Why is this? How come experts and academics can comment controversial stuff without ever fearing getting slandered by Republicans or even assaulted by rednecks or poor black guys from the ghettos? While the average Joe like you and me who DON'T EVEN belief what the experts saying but are merely repeating what another person said GET ATTACKED FOR IT (nevermind if we actually believe the controversial fact and are even backing it up with citations from multiple solid sources that have been under seirous peer review)?

And while we are at it how come its only in the Self Defense, martial arts, and legal law world where you'll face death threat and even physical assault for stating your expertise (that is 100% spoton but controversial)? Until I discovered your website and writings I always thought respected experts (like Academicians) were immune from verbal buse, death threats, and physical attacks.

AnswerA lot of it has to do with social conventions and who the person is dealing with. As in the redneck who punched you thought of you as an equal, not an over class (teacher). That also applies to the Marines vs. Army (you don't punch a Sgt).

In other situations it depends on who you are dealing with and how invested they are in being there. You have to pay to be in college so you're less likely to punch out a teacher than a high school kid.

Then there's a huge degree of 'how dangerous is it to physically attack you?' I was recently involved in local politics about my town's ban on open carry of guns. I was on the pro-gun side (even though I think open carry is stupid). The mayor had suggested that the (arguably illegal and unconstitutional) law be repealed; the anti-gun crowd came out in force. Which in turn brought us out. Anyway during the city council hearings I'd spoken and one of the anti-gunners was mad dawggin' me. There's been death threats and the like to other people who'd spoken and I mentioned if anyone wanted to make a run at me go ahead. I just looked at the guy with a calm acceptance of violence and he broke eye contact. Later -- ironically while I was talking to the opposition leader about compromise -- that same guy punched the mayor out in the parking lot. Bottom line, it was safer to attack the mayor than me. (Which since the mayor didn't press charges proved correct).

So yeah, I get threats. From people out of reach... like other states. Or through anonymous IP addresses. So internet tough talk and threats? Meh. Experience has taught me that if someone is going to make a run at you, they don't really spend a lot of time threatening. They come at you. They're the ones that step out of the shadows or ghost up behind you. The guys who do a lot of threatening are watching to see the effects of their threats. If they erode your confidence or scare you, they move. (Or the odds that they will increase.) If not, they don't.

Most threats are the guy self-soothing to save face or venting. But enough of them aren't that you can't blow them off. At the same time recognize that with any and all threats you're playing the odds. Will the guy follow the social rules and not attack? Or will he make a run at you? If the latter, how good is he? Or, more importantly, how soft of a target are you?

That last is important because a socially high status person (like a teacher) may personally be a soft target, but has the system backing them up. So yeah, you can drop him. But the people who come after you, you can't. So that's another thing that keeps them safe. You can win round one, but you won't win round two.

Expertise

Street self-defense, crime avoidance and personal safety

Experience

I grew up in the streets of Los Angeles in 'situational poverty.' I have dealt with criminals and violent people all my life -- both personally and professionally. I have written 15 books and 6 videos on surviving street violence. I was originally published under the name Marc Animal MacYoung. (Animal was my street name). I've taught police and military both internationally and within the US. I've lectured at universities, academies and done countless TV, radio, newspaper and magazine interviews. I'm a professional speaker on crime avoidance and personal safety. And I am an expert witness recognized by the US court system.
My bio is at
www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/marcmacyoung.html
My abridged CV (Curriculum Vitae) is at
http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/seminarEW.htm